Gandhi image missing from ‘genuine’ Rs 2,000 notes in MP

BHOPAL: The cash crunch has had an unlikely casualty; Mahatma Gandhi’s likeness on a batch of the new Rs 2,000 notes.
Farmers in a village situated in Madhya Pradesh have received newly printed Rs 2,000 notes without the this image printed on them and they are not fake.
At first the farmers thought that the notes were counterfeit but bank officials soon dispelled any such doubts and declared them “genuine”. The officials cited a “printing error” as the cause behind the anomaly. Further, citing bank and police sources, the report said that many such notes were in circulation in that region.
Laxman Meena, a farmer from Bichchhugawadi village, received three notes of Rs 2,000 when he withdrew money from the bank’s branch at Baroda town in Sheopur.
“I was given three notes of Rs 2,000 on withdrawal from my account on Tuesday (December 3). I later found that there was no image of Mahatma Gandhi on those,” Meena told PTI over phone.
“I was in the market when I discovered that there was no picture of Mahatma Gandhi on the notes. I then went to the bank and and showed it to the manager,” he said.
Meena said the branch manager told him to deposit those notes.
The bank manager also clarified to him that the currency was genuine and there might have been a printing error.
Meanwhile, the in-charge branch manager of the bank told PTI over phone that he has sent the information to the lead bank manager of the district.
“I have nothing more to say. I have already submitted the information in this regard to the lead bank manager,” he said.
. The notes, according to reports, were printed at the Bank Note Press in Dewas, Madhya Pradesh.
As reported earlier the country’s currency presses have been working 24×7 to produce an year’s output in just five months. The country has four such presses, located at Mysuru, Salboni, Dewas and Nashik.
Of the four presses, the one at Mysuru has the best printing lines. Till demonetisation, this press, along with the one at Salboni, printed the bulk of the Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. Dewas and Nashik, with older machines, print Rs 100, Rs 50, Rs 20, Rs 10, Rs 5 and Rs 2 notes. With the import of one machine line in 2015-16, some of the demand for the Rs 500 note can be met by the Dewas press.
An official had previously said that Our problem is that the rejection rates of notes in the two facilities (Dewas and Nashik) are over 15 per cent. The rates in Mysuru and Salboni hardly ever cross one per cent.”
The RBI’s indent for printing of Rs 500 notes is 5.7 billion for the current year and that for Rs 1,000 notes was 2.2 billion. The latter has been scrapped and replaced with a demand for Rs 2,000 notes. In five months, the automated presses at Mysuru and Salboni, which can run 24 hours without a break, have to print the same number of Rs 2,000 and Rs 500 notes earmarked for the earlier Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes over 12 months.
—With PTI inputs

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